2017 WAGC
2017 WAGC Our man at the WAGC this year is Alan Guerin a stalwart of the Christchurch Go scene who has recently helped restart the university club there. The WAGC tournament this year is being held in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province of Southwest China. The tournament starts on June 4, I'll post Alan's results and anything he sends me in the page here. Good luck Alan, enjoy the tournament! 31 May Just a quick update. Im now in Guiyang at the Sheraton. 28th Floor! Really nice place. Its been a fair bit of travel to get here and I'm looking forward to staying in one place for a while. Not many westerners in this part of China I would say. Anyway all going well and will try to give you some updates as I have time Kind regards, Alan 3 June Hi Guys Just a quick newsletter on my involvement in the WAGC Play starts tomorrow with 2 rounds and 2 each day from there on. The draw was done by lots and I drew the USA. Extremely tough draw hes rated at 7dan. So only good thing about that is its good for my SOS apparently. Numbers are down this year. Around 50 competitors. Having a good time and looking forward to the the tournament starting, I'm feeling ready to get started . Regards Alan 4 June I faced the USA representative Daniel Daehyuk Ko 7 Dan in my first round encounter. Call it an unlucky draw but it should be good for my SOS. I didnt play particularly well and fell behind early eventually losing a group as well. Result win for USA My second round opponent was Harold Brown from Argentina we had a good game with the lead changing hands a couple of times. Eventually I stumbled across something that had been on the board for a while and this was the death knell for my opponent. Result win NZ by resignation So with two rounds played the players unbeaten on 4 points are Bai Baoxiang 8 Dan of China Daniel Daehyuk Ko 7 Dan USA Ri Ji Ung 4 Dan of DRKorea Dmitry Surin 6 Dan of Russia Mijodrag Stanovic 5 Dan of Serbia Gheorge Cornel-Burzo 6 Dan of Romania Vorawat Tanapatsopol 5 Dan of Thailand Lucas Podpera 7 Dan of Czech Republic Fabien Lips 4 Dan of France Sangbin Lee 7 Dan of S Korea Nai San Chan 6 Dan of HK China Viktor Chiakuan Lin 6 Dan of Austria Ernestas Romeika 2 Dan of Lithuania Unfortunately Japan lost in the first round I have drawn a 6 Dan Monday morning Kind regards from Guiyang, Guizhou, China 5 June Drew Lukas Kraemer 6Dan from Germany in this mornings round. Tried to play very conservatively especially on the fuseki and early middle game. Had some sequences that were a little disadvantageous for me. Fell behind and started a desparate ko in Byo-yomi. Result win Germany by resignation In the afternoon round played a very friendly Spaniard Ricardo Garcia. I was comfortably ahead for a large part of the game and lost a large part of a group around the endgame but got some compensation fortunately. Result 25.5pt win to NZ Those remaining players undefeated are really thinning out. After round 4 there are three players on 8pts Bai Baoxiang 8 Dan of China Ri Ji Ung 4 Dan of DRKorea Sangbin Lee 7 Dan of S Korea Ri Ji Ung won his round three game this morning against Lucas Podpera 7 Dan of Czech Republic bu half a point after being 2 pts behind heading into the yose. Had a look around the river area near the hotel with Neville Smythe IGS Director this evening. Guiyang is a very nice city with a vibrant business district and river side area. Nice weather today. Blue sky - not bad for Monsoon season! 6 June, day 3 Bai Baoxiang 8 Dan of China played the last two remaining undefeated players met in round five and six today. Ri Ji Ung 4 Dan of DRKorea and Sangbin Lee 7 Dan of S Korea. Both were close games but China won both. China play Dmitry Surin of Russia tomorrow morning. I had a tough day with a 4.5 point loss to Frank Janssen 5Dan a game in which I was leading towards the end of the middle game! and a 10.5 point loss to Felicien Benoit Mazille 1 Dan of Switzerland. Leaving me on 4 points - 2 wins but tomorrows another day Regards from the 38th WAGC in Guiyang 7 June Day 4, Final day. Bai Baoxiang 8 Dan of China played the last two rounds today and defeated Dmitry Surin of Russia and another opponent in the last round to win the 38th WAGC with a perfect score of 16 points No player finished on 7 wins 14 points. But 7 players finished on 12 points they were: 2 Sangbin - Sth Korea 3 Lai Yu Cheng - Taipei 4 Daniel Daehyuk KO - USA 5 Shusaku - Japan 6 Jin Ung - Nth Korea 7 Gheorghe Cornel - Romania 8 Nai San Chen - Hong Kong 10 points 9th Dmitry Surin - Russia 10th Lukas Podpera Czech 11th Lukas Kraemer - Germany 12th AUSTRALIA - Kwan Tao Li (Daniel) 26th Vo Duy Min - Vietnam ( 12 years old) 4 wins 8 points 35th Alan Guerin - NZ ( 6 points - 3 wins) I played Alexander Rix from Great Britain this morning. I was too conservative with him and should have been more aggressive. He won by komi In the afternoon had a game with Lars Krisoferson. He played a little mirror Go initially and I thought generally played very well. There was a big ko near the end of the game which he won the ko but i got compensation - unfortunately an overlookment meant half my profit got away. Result 3.5pt win to NZ Overall a very pleasant and well organized tournament. Accomodation and food was excellent and every effort was made to make the event a success. Travelling early for me was a good idea ( I sojourned in HK for a couple of days to acclimatize). Next two years are Japan and then Vladivostock Russia! Signing out from Guiyang Many thanks to Alan Guerin for these reports. Pictures from the tournament: Click for full image and to view other images.